| Year 16 | Number 99 | 2008 | September 15th, 2008 |
| "Unshakable
faith is only that which can face reason face to
face in every Humankind epoch." Allan Kardec |
|
"If every
effect has a cause, every intelligent effect must have an intelligent
cause"
“As a means of elaboration, Spiritism proceeds in exactly the same course as the positive sciences; that is to say, it applies the experimental method. Some facts of a new order present themselves, which cannot be explained by known laws. It teaches us to observe, compare (…), deduces the consequences, and seeks for useful applications; it establishes no preconceived theory. (...) It is rigorously exact to declare that Spiritism is a science of observation, and not the product of imagination. Not until its studies were based on experimental methods did the sciences begin to make serious progress. Although it was believed that this method could only be applied to matter, it is just as well applied to metaphysical things” (Kardec, 1868/2003:18). “We are well aware that our severity with regard to mercenary mediumship has gained us the ill-will of those who are tempted to make of spiritism a source of worldly gain, and of their friends (...) we do not see how any one can maintain that there is not a greater risk of fraud and of misuse of the mediumistic faculty, when the latter is made a matter of speculation, than when it is exercised with entire disinterestedness and if our writings have contributed, in France and other countries, to discredit the turning of mediumship into a trade, we believe it will not be the least of the services they will have rendered to the cause of Spiritism” (Kardec, 1861/1986:391). - Physical mediumship is more subject to fraud than intellectual mediumship, because in the latter it is possible to judge the content of the mediumistic communication. It is hard to explain as fraud when mediums show knowledge of facts, even private affairs, and personality traces of late people unknown to them and to anyone at the séance" (Kardec, 1861/1986). “"[Spiritism] is, and must be, essentially progressive, like all sciences based upon the observation of facts (…) Therefore, it does not regard anything as an established principle unless it has been patently demonstrated, or inferred logically from observation. (…) [It] will always assimilate all progressive doctrines, provided they have attained the condition of practical truths, and left the domain of utopia (…). Going hand in hand with progress, Spiritism will never be superseded, since if new discoveries happen to show that it is in error on any point, it would modify itself on that point" (Kardec, 1868:29). Excerpts from "Allan Kardec
and the Development of a Research Program in Psychic Experiences"
By Alexander Moreira-Almeida |
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| °EDITORIAL
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| CHRIST'S LIFE, NOT CHRIST'S
DEATH |
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| ° THE CODIFICATION
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| GENESIS:
The Miracles and the Predictions According to Spiritism |
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| CHRISTIANITY AND SPIRITUALISM by Leon Denis | |||
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| HEAVEN
AND HELL - FUTURE LIFE AND ANNIHILATION |
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| PART SECOND - EXAMPLES [CHAPTERS III] | |||
| A
REASON TO FORGIVE OTHERS |
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| ALLAN KARDEC AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF A
RESEARCH PROGRAM IN PSYCHIC EXPERIENCES |
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| MEDICINE AND SPIRITUAL HEALING |
| ° EDITORIAL |
"It is to be
remembered that Christ's life in this world occupied, so
far as we can estimate, 33 years, whilst from His arrest to His
resurrection was less than a week. Yet the whole Christian system has
come to revolve round His death, to the partial exclusion of the
beautiful lesson of His life. Far too much weight has been placed upon
the one, and far too little upon the other, for the death, beautiful,
and indeed perfect, as it was, could be matched by that of many scores
of thousands who have died for an idea, while the life, with its
consistent record of charity, breadth of mind, unselfishness, courage,
reason, and progressiveness, is absolutely unique and superhuman. Even
in these abbreviated, translated, and second-hand records we receive an
impression such as no other life can give -- an impression which fills
us with utter reverence. Napoleon, no mean judge of human nature, said
of it: "It is different with Christ. Every thing about Him astonishes
me. His spirit surprises me, and His will
confounds me. Between Him and anything of this world there is no
possible comparison. He is really a being apart. The nearer I approach
Him and the closer I examine Him, the more everything seems above me."
It is this wonderful life, its example and inspiration, which was the real object of the descent of this high spirit on to our planet. If the human race had earnestly centered upon that instead of losing itself in vain dreams of vicarious sacrifices and imaginary falls, with all the mystical and contentious philosophy which has centered round the subject, how very different the level of human culture and happiness would be today! Such theories, with their absolute want of reason or morality, have been the main cause why the best minds have been so often alienated from the Christian system and proclaimed themselves materialists. In contemplating what shocked their instincts for truth they have lost that which was both true and beautiful. Christ's death was worthy of His life, and rounded off a perfect career, but it is the life which He has left as the foundation for the permanent religion of mankind. All the religious wars, the private feuds, and the countless miseries of sectarian contention, would have been at least minimized, if not avoided, had the bare example of Christ's life been adopted as the standard of conduct and of religion.
But there are certain other considerations which should have weight when we contemplate this life and its efficacy as an example. One of these is that the very essence of it was that He critically examined religion as He found it, and brought His robust common sense and courage to bear in exposing the shams and in pointing out the better path. That is the hall mark of the true follower of Christ, and not the mute acceptance of doctrines which are, upon the face of them, false and pernicious, because they come to us with some show of authority. What authority have we now, save this very life, which could compare with those Jewish books which were so binding in their force, and so immutably sacred that even the misspellings or pen-slips of the scribe, were most carefully preserved? It is a simple obvious fact that if Christ had been orthodox, and had possessed what is so often praised as a "child-like faith," there could have been no such thing as Christianity. Let reformers who love Him take heart as they consider that they are indeed following in the footsteps of the Master, who has at no time said that the revelation which He brought, and which has been so imperfectly used, is the last which will come to mankind. In our own times an equally great one has been released from the center of all truth, which will make as deep an impression upon the human race as Christianity, though no predominant figure has yet appeared to enforce its lessons. Such a figure has appeared once when the days were ripe, and I do not doubt that this may occur once more."
It is this wonderful life, its example and inspiration, which was the real object of the descent of this high spirit on to our planet. If the human race had earnestly centered upon that instead of losing itself in vain dreams of vicarious sacrifices and imaginary falls, with all the mystical and contentious philosophy which has centered round the subject, how very different the level of human culture and happiness would be today! Such theories, with their absolute want of reason or morality, have been the main cause why the best minds have been so often alienated from the Christian system and proclaimed themselves materialists. In contemplating what shocked their instincts for truth they have lost that which was both true and beautiful. Christ's death was worthy of His life, and rounded off a perfect career, but it is the life which He has left as the foundation for the permanent religion of mankind. All the religious wars, the private feuds, and the countless miseries of sectarian contention, would have been at least minimized, if not avoided, had the bare example of Christ's life been adopted as the standard of conduct and of religion.
But there are certain other considerations which should have weight when we contemplate this life and its efficacy as an example. One of these is that the very essence of it was that He critically examined religion as He found it, and brought His robust common sense and courage to bear in exposing the shams and in pointing out the better path. That is the hall mark of the true follower of Christ, and not the mute acceptance of doctrines which are, upon the face of them, false and pernicious, because they come to us with some show of authority. What authority have we now, save this very life, which could compare with those Jewish books which were so binding in their force, and so immutably sacred that even the misspellings or pen-slips of the scribe, were most carefully preserved? It is a simple obvious fact that if Christ had been orthodox, and had possessed what is so often praised as a "child-like faith," there could have been no such thing as Christianity. Let reformers who love Him take heart as they consider that they are indeed following in the footsteps of the Master, who has at no time said that the revelation which He brought, and which has been so imperfectly used, is the last which will come to mankind. In our own times an equally great one has been released from the center of all truth, which will make as deep an impression upon the human race as Christianity, though no predominant figure has yet appeared to enforce its lessons. Such a figure has appeared once when the days were ripe, and I do not doubt that this may occur once more."
Excerpt
from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's The
Vital Message [Chapter I - The
Two Needful Readjustments]
Psychic Press Limited - London - 1981
Psychic Press Limited - London - 1981
GEAE's Editorial Council
Back to Content
| ° THE CODIFICATION |
GENESIS: The Miracles and the Predictions According to Spiritism
BY Allan Kardec
Author of "The Spirits' Book," "The Mediums' Book," and "Heaven and Hell."
Translated By The Spirit-Guides of W. J. Colville
[Colby & Rich, Publishers - 1883 - Boston - USA]
The spiritual doctrine is the result of the collective and concordant teachings of spirits.
Science is called in to make the statements in Genesis agree with the laws of nature.
God proves his greatness and power by the immutability of his laws, and not by their suspension.
For God the past and the future are the present.
CHAPTER I
CHARACTER OF THE SPIRITUAL REVELATION
Part Three
In this age of intellectual emancipation and of liberty of conscience the right of examination belongs to all the world; and the Scriptures are no more the holy ark upon which one fears to lay a finger in the expectation of being crushed thereby. In regard to special necessary knowledge, without contesting that of the theologians, all brilliant as were they of the Middle Ages, and particularly the fathers of the Church, they were not, however, strong enough to condemn as heresy the movement of the earth and belief in the antipodes; but, from all known periods of the world's formation till the present time, they have thrown the anathema at every new revelation.
Men have not been able to explain the Scriptures by the exclusive aid of that knowledge which they (mixed with false or uncertain ideas) possessed concerning the laws of nature, revealed later by science: that is the reason why theologians themselves have really mistaken the sense of certain words and facts in the Gospel. Determined, at any price, to find the confirmation of a preconceived thought, they remained always in the same groove, without ever changing their point of view, in such a manner that saw only that which they wished to see. Wise theologians as they were, they could not comprehend facts depending upon laws of which they knew nothing. But who could judge between the diverse and often contradictory interpretations given outside of theology? In the future logic and good sense, men, more and more enlightened, according as new facts and new laws will be revealed, will learn how to distinguish Utopian systems from those based upon reality. Now science has revealed certain laws. Spiritism brings others also to light. Collectively they are indispensable to the correct understanding of the sacred texts of all religions, - those of Confucius and Buddha equally with those of Christianity. As to theology, it cannot know how to judiciously plead an exception for the contradictions of science, since it is not always in accord with itself. Spiritism, taking its starting-point at the words of Christ, as Christ has taken his from Moses, is a direct consequence of his doctrine.
To vague ideas of the future life it adds a revelation of the existence of the invisible world which surrounds us, and peoples all space; and, poising belief there, it gives it a body, a consistence, a reality in thought. It defines the connection between the soul and the body, and raises the veil which conceals from men the mysteries of life and death. By Spiritism man knows whence he comes, where he is capable of going, why he is upon the earth, why he suffers temporarily, and can see, above all, the justice of God. He learns that souls progress unceasingly through a series of progressive existences until they shall have attained to that degree of perfection in which God only reigns. He learns that all souls, having the same starting-point, are created equal, with the same opportunity to progress in virtue of their own free will; that all are of the same essence, and that there is between them only a difference of accomplished progress; that all have the same destiny, and will attain the same end more or less promptly according to their labor and desire to progress. He learns that there are no disinherited ones, no lost souls, neither one more favored than another; that God has not created some favored ones who are excused from the labor which is imposed upon others to facilitate their progression; that there are no creatures perpetually condemned to unhappiness and suffering; that those designated under the name of demons are spirits yet undeveloped and imperfect, who do wrong in the world of spirits as they did here upon the earth, but who will advance and ameliorate their condition; that the angels are not beings distinct from the rest of creation, but spirits who have attained that height through the same earthly sufferings and temptations as others undergo; that thus there are not multiplied creations of different classes among intelligent humanity, but that all creation springs from the great law of unity which rules the universe, and that all beings gravitate towards a common end, which is perfection, without one being favored at the expense of others, all holding the thread of their destiny in their own hands.
By the communications that man can now establish with those who have left the earth, he receives not only the material proof of the existence and individuality of the soul, but he comprehends the solidarity which joins the living and the dead in this world, and those of this world with those of other worlds. He knows their situation in the world of spirits; he follows them in their migrations; he can testify of their joys and troubles; he knows why they are happy or unhappy, and the end which awaits all, according to the good or evil they accomplished. These communications introduce him to a future life, which he can observe in all its phases and conditions. The future is no more a vague hope; it is a positive fact, a mathematical certitude. Thus he has no more fear of death; it is for him a deliverance, the gate of true life. By the study of Spiritualism, one learns that happiness or unhappiness in the spiritual life is experienced according to the degree of perfection or imperfection one has obtained; that each one suffers the direct and natural consequences of his own faults; that these consequences endure as long as the cause which has produced them; that thus the culprit would suffer eternally if he persisted eternally in his fault, but that suffering ceases with repentance and reparation. Now, as our joy and sorrow are within our own grasp, each one can, by virtue of his free will, prolong or abridge his sufferings, as the invalid suffers from his excesses as long as he indulges in them. If reason repels, as incompatible with the goodness of God, the idea of everlasting punishment, perpetual and absolute, often inflicted for one fault alone, - the tortures of hell, which no repentance, however ardent or sincere, can lessen, - it acknowledges this distributive impartial justice which is extended to all; never shutting the door of return to goodness, and extending unceasingly the helping hand to the shipwrecked one, instead of allowing him to sink without aid into the abyss. The plurality of existences, of which Christ has taught, though merely touching upon it, as with many other principles of his doctrine, is one of the most important laws revealed by Spiritism, - for this reason, that it reveals the necessity and reality of progress. By this law can be explained all the apparent anomalies which human life presents, - its differences of social position; the premature deaths, which, without reincarnation, would render abridged lives useless for souls; the inequality of intellectual and moral aptitudes, owing to the antiquity of the spirit, who has lived a longer or a shorter time, and who, being reborn, brings into requisition the knowledge of anterior existences. With the doctrine of the creation of a soul at every birth, one falls necessarily into the belief in beings favored of God. Men are strangers to one another. Nothing unites firmly; the ties of family are purely physical. They are not solidarities of a past in which they did not exist. With this springs nonentity after death. All relations of life cease; there are no unions for the future. By reincarnation they form solidarities of the past and the future, their connection perpetuating itself in the spiritual and material world. Goodness has an objective existence, while there is no reversal of inevitable consequences.
With belief in reincarnation, the prejudices of races and castes fall dead, since the same spirit can be reborn rich or poor, lord or beggar, master or subordinate, free or enslaved, man or woman. Of all the arguments brought against the injustice of servitude and slavery, against the subjection of the weaker to the rule of the stronger, there is no one of them which expresses so logically the reason therefor as the law of reincarnation. If, then, reincarnation is found upon a law of nature which is the source of universal brotherhood, it is based upon the same law as that of the equality of social rights and of freedom. Physically, some men are born inferior and subordinate; but, spiritually, all are free and equal. Therefore it is a duty to treat inferiors with goodness, benevolence, and humanity. He who is in a lower earthly position today may have been once our equal or our superior, perhaps a relation or a friend; and we may become in our turn the subordinate of him whom we command. Take away from man the free, independent spirit surviving matter, and you make of him an organized machine, without will or responsibility, without other rein than the civil law, simply an intelligent animal. Expecting nothing after death, nothing hinders him from augmenting the joys of the present. If he suffers, he has in perspective only despair and nonentity for refuge. With certainty of a future, of seeing again those whom he has loved, of encountering again those who he has offended, all his ideas change. Had Spiritism only drawn man from the sad doubt of a future life, it would have done more for his moral amelioration than all the disciplinary laws which have bridled him sometimes, but changed him never. Without preexistence of the soul, the doctrine of original sin is not only irreconcilable with the justice of God, who would render all men responsible for the fault of one, but is senseless; while the penalty cannot be justifiable, because the soul did not exist at the epoch where it is pretended its responsibility commenced. With preexistence and reincarnation man carries into his re-embodiment the germ of his past imperfections, the defects of which he has not been cured, which betray themselves in his native instincts, in his propensities for this or that vice. It is his veritable original sin, to the consequences of which he is naturally submitted, but with this capital difference, that he carries the burden of his own faults, and not that of the fault of another; and this difference at one and the same time consoles, encourages, and honors sovereign equity, each separate existence offering to man the means of making reparation for sins committed, and of progress either by overcoming some imperfection, or by acquiring some fresh knowledge, until he becomes sufficiently purified to have no more need of earthly experience, when he will live exclusively a glorious, eternal life of spirit. For the same reason, he who has progressed morally carries into re-embodiment his moral qualities with him, just as he who has progressed intellectually carries his intelligent ideas with him. The former is identified with goodness, which he practices without effort, without calculation; that is to say, without thinking about it. While he who is obliged to combat low tendencies is always in a battle with them. The first is already conqueror, the second on the way to victory. There is, then, original virtue, as there is original knowledge, and original sin, or more correctly, imperfection. Experimental Spiritism has studied the properties of spiritual fluids, and their action upon matter. It has demonstrated the existence of a fluidic body, in which the ancients had a partial belief, designated by St. Paul under the name of "spiritual body;" that is to say, the gaseous body of the soul, which remains after the destruction of the material body. It is known today that this envelope is inseparable from the soul; that it is one of the constituent elements of a human being; that it is the vehicle for the transmission of thought; and that during earthly life it serves as a connection between spirit and matter. This spiritual body plays such an important part in the organism and in a multitude of productions, that there needs to be allied to physiology and psychology the study of its properties, of the spiritual fluids, and of the physiological attributes of the soul. This opens new horizons to science, and gives the key to a great number of unknown phenomena, the laws which rule them being until now unknown. Phenomena are denied by Materialism because they are linked with Spiritism, and, because called by another name than miracles or supernatural occurrences, are ignored by those of supernatural belief. Among others are the phenomena of double sight, visions of objects at a distance, natural and artificial somnambulism, psychic effects of catalepsy and lethargy, prescience, presentiments, apparitions, transfigurations, the transmission of thought, fascination, instantaneous cures, obsessions and possessions, etc. In demonstrating that these phenomena repose upon laws as natural as the electrical phenomena, and that there exist normal conditions in which they can be reproduced, Spiritism destroys the empire of the marvelous and supernatural, and consequently the source of the greater part of superstition. If it founds a belief in the possibility of certain things regarded by some as chimerical, it precludes one from believing in others of which it has demonstrated the impossibility and irrationality.
Note
from the Editor: Parts
One and Two
of this Chapter I of Genesis was published on the issues #
97 and # 98
of the Spiritist Messenger.
| ° ELECTRONIC BOOKS |
CHRISTIANITY AND SPIRITUALISM
The History of the Gospels
The Secret Doctrine of Christianity
Intercourse with the Spirits of the Dead
The New Revelation
Vitam Impendere Vero
By
LÉON DENIS
Author of
"Après La Mort, "Dans L'Invisible," ETC.
Translated from the French by
HELEN DRAPER SPEAKMAN
LONDON
PHILIP WELLBY
6 Henrietta Street Covent Garden
1904
This book is out of print indefinitely
1st Electronic Edition by
the
Advanced
Study Group of Spiritism
(GEAE)
2006
COMPLEMENTARY
NOTES
Note # 12
Note # 12
ON
TELEPATHY
The Society of Psychical Research, of London, has instituted inquiries into many instances of the phenomena of telepathy, of apparitions, and other manifestations of the same order. The first of these inquiries brought to light 800 cases of apparitions, related in the work of Messrs Myers, Podmore and Gurney, entitled "Phantasms of the Living." A second and more recent investigation revealed 1652 cases. All these facts, with others still more recent, have been collected and published in several volumes of the "Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research." The accounts and other documents composing them have been signed by men of science, occupying prominent positions in learned societies and bodies; astronomers, mathematicians, physicians, chemists, etc.
Among the signatures we find those of Gladstone and Balfour, etc. These apparitions almost always occurred at the moment of death, or after the death of the person whose image appeared. There are also cases in which a living man has appeared to another without being aware of it. The attempt has been made to attribute to these phenomena a purely subjective character, and to explain them by hallucination; but it is proved by a careful examination of the reports that these facts are objective and real, for they not only impress human beings, but it has been observed from their coincident attacks of sudden fright or panic, that animals also see them.
In certain cases, the same apparition has been seen successively on different floors of the house by different people. At other times, they are accompanied by physical manifestations, by noises, by violent and echoing blows, voices are heard, doors are opened, and objects are displaced by the phantoms.
Professor Myers, of Cambridge, author of the work quoted above, hesitated long before admitting the existence of spirits, but, before the impossibility of finding elesewhere an intelligent cause for these phenomena, he came to the following conclusion; (Annales des Sciences psychiques. August 1892, p. 246). "The spiritualistic method is in itself legitimate, necessary and true." ¹
These investigations, carried on in England and published with the testimony of persons whose good faith is above question, are now being carried on also in France by Doctor Dariex, Professor Richet of the Academy of Paris, and Colonel de Rochas, head of the Polytechnic of France. The results, very remarkable, and identical with those obtained on the other side of the Channel, are published in the Annales des Sciences psychiques, above mentioned.
Aksakof, in his work "Animisme and Spiritisme," ² also mentioned interesting cases of double presence of living people. We find, among others, that of Melle Emilie Sagée, a French teacher, who was discharged for this reason, from seventeen educational establishments. This phenomenon showed itself sometimes in the presence of her pupils, and produced a panic among them.
¹ See also Prof. Myers' great work "Human personality and its survival after death." (Translator's note.)
² Page 604 of the German edition.
The Society of Psychical Research, of London, has instituted inquiries into many instances of the phenomena of telepathy, of apparitions, and other manifestations of the same order. The first of these inquiries brought to light 800 cases of apparitions, related in the work of Messrs Myers, Podmore and Gurney, entitled "Phantasms of the Living." A second and more recent investigation revealed 1652 cases. All these facts, with others still more recent, have been collected and published in several volumes of the "Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research." The accounts and other documents composing them have been signed by men of science, occupying prominent positions in learned societies and bodies; astronomers, mathematicians, physicians, chemists, etc.
Among the signatures we find those of Gladstone and Balfour, etc. These apparitions almost always occurred at the moment of death, or after the death of the person whose image appeared. There are also cases in which a living man has appeared to another without being aware of it. The attempt has been made to attribute to these phenomena a purely subjective character, and to explain them by hallucination; but it is proved by a careful examination of the reports that these facts are objective and real, for they not only impress human beings, but it has been observed from their coincident attacks of sudden fright or panic, that animals also see them.
In certain cases, the same apparition has been seen successively on different floors of the house by different people. At other times, they are accompanied by physical manifestations, by noises, by violent and echoing blows, voices are heard, doors are opened, and objects are displaced by the phantoms.
Professor Myers, of Cambridge, author of the work quoted above, hesitated long before admitting the existence of spirits, but, before the impossibility of finding elesewhere an intelligent cause for these phenomena, he came to the following conclusion; (Annales des Sciences psychiques. August 1892, p. 246). "The spiritualistic method is in itself legitimate, necessary and true." ¹
These investigations, carried on in England and published with the testimony of persons whose good faith is above question, are now being carried on also in France by Doctor Dariex, Professor Richet of the Academy of Paris, and Colonel de Rochas, head of the Polytechnic of France. The results, very remarkable, and identical with those obtained on the other side of the Channel, are published in the Annales des Sciences psychiques, above mentioned.
Aksakof, in his work "Animisme and Spiritisme," ² also mentioned interesting cases of double presence of living people. We find, among others, that of Melle Emilie Sagée, a French teacher, who was discharged for this reason, from seventeen educational establishments. This phenomenon showed itself sometimes in the presence of her pupils, and produced a panic among them.
¹ See also Prof. Myers' great work "Human personality and its survival after death." (Translator's note.)
² Page 604 of the German edition.
Note #
13
ON SUGGESTION OR THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE
ON SUGGESTION OR THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE
Concerning the
theories of telepathy, transmission of thought, or suggestion, Mrs
Britten, a well-known English spiritualistic writer, quotes a decisive
experiment of Robert Hare's, professor at the University of
Pennsylvania, which has often been told, but which she repeats as
having been related to her by the Professor himself. Professor Hare was
experimenting, like so many others, with the sole object of unmasking
what he had decided a priori
to be an abominable fraud. After researches pursued during many months,
he came to the conclusion that the phenomena proved the existence of a
force hitherto unknown, but that the information received came from all
the intelligences present, in other words, through
thought-transference, which has, in our day, been presented as a new
discovery, and called telepathy.
To check-mate this force, the professor invented a sort of rapping dial, whose movements could be influenced by mediums for physical effects, while a needle, moved by mediumistic power, indicated the letters of the alphabet which were placed at the opposite side of the table from the medium, so that it was absolutely impossible for the latter to direct the movements of the needle, or even to see or know the communications which were dictated. Thus the dial was influenced by the force of the medium, without his being able to follow the word spelled, and the spectators also were rendered quite incapable of directing in any way the force which moved the dial.
It was during a series of experiments carried on in this manner that the spirit of a little boy who said he was the eldest born of the Professor (a child who had died at the age of two years) constantly came and communicated.
Although he stated that he had become a man, he always referred to himself as "little Tarley," giving his name of Charley in baby fashion, as a proof of his identity.
One day when the dial was working well under the hand of a powerful medium, the professor said: "Well, little Tarley, if you are really there and since you seem to know so much, tell me what I have in a package in this pocket of my coat?"
"You have there, father," spelled out the spirit, "a little bit of a faded yellow lace veil, which was taken from off my face when I was laid in my little coffin."
"Little Tarley," replied the professor, mockingly, "I perceive that you are not very wise, for I have nothing of the kind in my pocket." Then, turning towards those who formed the circle, he said gravely: "You see, my friends, the value of these pretended spirit-communications, when there is no brain in which they can read. It is a little shoe I have in my pocket; I took it off the dead foot of my child before the coffin was closed and have kept it carefully in a drawer during a quarter of a century, in memory of my firstborn, with his little toys and other souvenirs of my dear departed; let us admit that this spirit is making fun of us."
Saying these words, he took from his coat a package and unfolded one after the other a certain number of old pieces of yellow paper; he finally came to the last one which contained ... a piece of yellow lace veil; on the envelope the dead mother had written that she had taken if off the face of her little dead child!
The professor had been in error, but the spirit had made no mistake.
NOTE TO PAGE 250
The law of reincarnation is not only proved by reason, but also by facts. The experiments in Spain on the "retrogression of memory," brought to the notice of the International Spiritualistic Congress of 1900 (Paris) show that in subjects in a profound magnetic sleep, the sleep stratas of memory which which are out of reach in the waking state, may be revealed. The subject remembers his youth and infancy, even to the smallest details (which are in many cases completely verified afterwards), and as the magnetic sleep becomes deeper and deeper, his memory recedes still further and he is enabled to recall his last incarnation, and then the preceding one, thus going back through several incarnations. In so doing he takes on the different characteristics of the personalities which he possessed, and can even give e the names of familiar people and places, which have in several instances been proved to be correct.
To bring him back to the present, the sleep must be gradually lightened, and he returns stage by stage, over the way he has been sent, until he awakes.
Quite recently, Colonel de Rochas published his experiments with two mediums, Josephine and Eugénie, both women in excellent health, and of good character. With Josephine especially he was successful in reconstituting quite a number of very diverse previous existences on this earth. She gave names, places of birth, and complete and minute histories of each life, some of them not at all to her credit. The little out of the way villages mentioned by her, Col. de Rochas was able later on to locate, and also to find traces of some of the families to which she had claimed to belong.
(See the "Comte rendu du Congrés Spiritualiste de Paris," 1900, pp. 349, 350. Also, for the experiments of Col. de Rochas, see the "Revue Scientifique et Morale du Spiritisme," July and August 1904.
To check-mate this force, the professor invented a sort of rapping dial, whose movements could be influenced by mediums for physical effects, while a needle, moved by mediumistic power, indicated the letters of the alphabet which were placed at the opposite side of the table from the medium, so that it was absolutely impossible for the latter to direct the movements of the needle, or even to see or know the communications which were dictated. Thus the dial was influenced by the force of the medium, without his being able to follow the word spelled, and the spectators also were rendered quite incapable of directing in any way the force which moved the dial.
It was during a series of experiments carried on in this manner that the spirit of a little boy who said he was the eldest born of the Professor (a child who had died at the age of two years) constantly came and communicated.
Although he stated that he had become a man, he always referred to himself as "little Tarley," giving his name of Charley in baby fashion, as a proof of his identity.
One day when the dial was working well under the hand of a powerful medium, the professor said: "Well, little Tarley, if you are really there and since you seem to know so much, tell me what I have in a package in this pocket of my coat?"
"You have there, father," spelled out the spirit, "a little bit of a faded yellow lace veil, which was taken from off my face when I was laid in my little coffin."
"Little Tarley," replied the professor, mockingly, "I perceive that you are not very wise, for I have nothing of the kind in my pocket." Then, turning towards those who formed the circle, he said gravely: "You see, my friends, the value of these pretended spirit-communications, when there is no brain in which they can read. It is a little shoe I have in my pocket; I took it off the dead foot of my child before the coffin was closed and have kept it carefully in a drawer during a quarter of a century, in memory of my firstborn, with his little toys and other souvenirs of my dear departed; let us admit that this spirit is making fun of us."
Saying these words, he took from his coat a package and unfolded one after the other a certain number of old pieces of yellow paper; he finally came to the last one which contained ... a piece of yellow lace veil; on the envelope the dead mother had written that she had taken if off the face of her little dead child!
The professor had been in error, but the spirit had made no mistake.
NOTE TO PAGE 250
The law of reincarnation is not only proved by reason, but also by facts. The experiments in Spain on the "retrogression of memory," brought to the notice of the International Spiritualistic Congress of 1900 (Paris) show that in subjects in a profound magnetic sleep, the sleep stratas of memory which which are out of reach in the waking state, may be revealed. The subject remembers his youth and infancy, even to the smallest details (which are in many cases completely verified afterwards), and as the magnetic sleep becomes deeper and deeper, his memory recedes still further and he is enabled to recall his last incarnation, and then the preceding one, thus going back through several incarnations. In so doing he takes on the different characteristics of the personalities which he possessed, and can even give e the names of familiar people and places, which have in several instances been proved to be correct.
To bring him back to the present, the sleep must be gradually lightened, and he returns stage by stage, over the way he has been sent, until he awakes.
Quite recently, Colonel de Rochas published his experiments with two mediums, Josephine and Eugénie, both women in excellent health, and of good character. With Josephine especially he was successful in reconstituting quite a number of very diverse previous existences on this earth. She gave names, places of birth, and complete and minute histories of each life, some of them not at all to her credit. The little out of the way villages mentioned by her, Col. de Rochas was able later on to locate, and also to find traces of some of the families to which she had claimed to belong.
(See the "Comte rendu du Congrés Spiritualiste de Paris," 1900, pp. 349, 350. Also, for the experiments of Col. de Rochas, see the "Revue Scientifique et Morale du Spiritisme," July and August 1904.
THE
END
Note
from the Editor:
For those interested in reading the previous chapters and the entire book, it is available at the homepage of the GEAE, at the following link:
Christianity and Spiritualism
For those interested in reading the previous chapters and the entire book, it is available at the homepage of the GEAE, at the following link:
Christianity and Spiritualism
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| ° SPIRIT
MESSAGES |
HEAVEN AND HELL
Or
The Divine Justice Vindicated in the Plurality of Existence
Concerning
The passage from the earthly life to spirit-life,
future rewards and punishments,
angels and devils, etc.
Followed by numerous examples of the state of the soul,
during and after death.
BEING THE PRACTICAL CONFIRMATION OF "THE SPIRITS' BOOK"
BY Allan Kardec
Translated from the Sixtieth Thousand - By Anna Blackwell
[London: Trubner & Co., Ludgate Hill - 1878]
Part First - Doctrine
CHAPTER I
FUTURE LIFE AND ANNIHILATION
Part Two
10. The theories we have been examining not only fail to satisfy either the reason or the aspirations of mankind, but they present to the mind a succession of insurmountable difficulties, of questions in regard to matters of fact, which they are utterly incapable of answering. We have to choose between three theoretic alternatives: Annihilation, Absorption, and The individuality of the soul before and after death. It is to this last belief that we are led by reason; and it is this belief which has constituted the basis of all religions in all ages of the world.
If reason leads us to a conviction of the persistence of the soul's individuality, it also leads us to the admission of this consequence of that persistence, viz., that the fate of each soul must depend on its own personal qualities; for it would be irrational to assume that the backward soul of the savage and the evil-minded are at the same level as that of the scientific and the benevolent. Justice demands that each soul should be responsible for its own action; but, in order for souls to be thus responsible, they must be free to choose between good and evil. Unless we admit the freedom of the will, we must necessarily assume the existence of fatality; and responsibility cannot co-exist with fatality.
11. All religions have proclaimed the principle of the happiness or unhappiness of the soul after death, in other words, the principle of future rewards and punishments, summed up in the doctrinal idea of "Heaven" and "Hell," which is common to them all. But those religions differ radically as to the nature of the rewards and punishments of the future, and especially as to the conditions upon which they depend. Hence have arisen contradictory beliefs, which have produced various forms of worship, and have led to the imposition of special practices by each of them as a method of honoring God, and thus of gaining admission to "Heaven" and avoiding "Hell."
12. All the religions of the world were necessarily, at their origin, in harmony with the degree of moral and intellectual advancement of the peoples among whom they took their rise, and who - being still too deeply sunk in materiality to conceive of things purely spiritual - made the greater part of their religious duties to consist in the accomplishment of certain external forms. For a time, forms suffice to satisfy the mind; at a later period, when men acquire more light, they feel the emptiness of those forms, and, if the doctrines of their faith do not suffice to supply the void left by the collapse of its forms, they abandon their religion and become philosophers.
13. The earliest religious doctrine ever put forth in the world was, when first put forth, in harmony with the scanty knowledge of the men of the primitive period in which it took its rise; - if that primitive formula had always kept pace with the ascensional movement of the human mind, the same harmony would always have existed between them, and there would never have been any unbelievers, because the need of believing is natural to the human heart, and men will believe if they are presented with religious ideas in harmony with their intellectual needs. Man would fain know whence he comes and whiter he is going; but if that which is set before him as the object of life does not correspond either to his aspirations, to the idea which he has formed to himself of God, or to the data of physical science, - if, moreover, it is sought to impose on him, as necessary to the attainment of that object, conditions of which the utility is not perceived by his reason, - he naturally rejects the who. Materialism and Pantheism appear to him more rational than the unreasoning creed of his childhood, simply because they reason and discuss. Their reasoning is false, but, at all events, they reason; and he would rather reason falsely than not reason at all.
But let the doctrine of a future life be presented to him under an aspect that is, at once, satisfactory to his reason, and worthy, in all respects, of the greatness, the justice, and the infinite goodness of God, and he will renounce both Materialism and Pantheism, of which every man feels the hollowness in his secret soul, and which are only accepted for lack of something better; and, as Spiritism gives something very much better than those empty and comfortless theories, it is eagerly welcomed by all those who do not find, in the common beliefs and philosophies of the day, the certainty for which they long, and who are consequently undergoing the tortures of doubt. The spiritist theory is confirmed both by argument and by facts; and it therefore furnishes the broad and solid basis of belief which no other theory is able to supply.
14. The belief in a future life is instinctive in the human mind; but, as men have hitherto possessed no clear and sufficient ground for this belief, their imagination has engendered the various religious systems which have given rise to the wide diversities of human worship. As the spiritist doctrine of the future life is not a work of imagination more or less ingeniously conceived, but is, on the contrary, deduced from, and confirmed by, the observation of physical facts that are now occurring under our eyes, it will continue to attract, as it has hitherto done, those whose convictions, on this most momentous of subjects, are divergent or unsettled, and will gradually establish a unitary belief in regard to it; a belief that will be based, no longer on a mere hypothesis, but on a certainty. This unification of human conviction, in regard to the future existence of the soul, will be the first step towards the unification of the forms of worship; it will thus exercise a most important and decisive influence on all the various religions of the world, and will lead, first, to their mutual toleration of one another, and, eventually, to their fusion.
Note
from the Editor: Part
One of
this Chapter I of Heaven and Hell was published on the issue # 98 of
the Spiritist Messenger.
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[Spirits in a Middling Condition]
[Spirits in a Middling Condition]
DR. CARDON
(Evocation.) - A. I am near you.
Q. - We have been informed of the circumstances attending your death, and we have been greatly interested by those details. Will you have the kindness to describe to us, as fully as may be, what you saw in the interval between what may be called your two deaths?
A. What I saw, could you comprehend? I know not; but I could not find words capable of rendering comprehensible, for you, what I beheld in the few moments during which it was possible for me to quit my mortal envelope.
Q. Can you tell where you went to? Was it far from the earth? Was it in some other planet? Or was it in space?
A. The spirit does not measure distances as you do. Carried away by some wonderful current, I beheld the splendors of a sky such as not the most ecstatic dream could foreshadow. This journey through infinity was accomplished so rapidly that I cannot tell how many moments were thus employed by my spirit.
Q. Are you now in the enjoyment of all the happiness of which you obtained a glimpse?
A. No; I should be rejoiced indeed if such were my present lot; but God could not grant me a reward so far above my deserts. I rebelled too often against the wise suggestions made to my mind, for death seemed to me to be an injustice. A skeptical physician, I had imbibed, from the exercise of the healing art, an aversion for the idea of the second nature which is our intelligent and divinely-given motor; I regarded the immortality of the sou as a fiction fit for minds of little elevation; nevertheless, the prospect of annihilation filled me with horror, for the mysterious agent, that I had so often cursed, continued to knock at the door of my heart. But the vain philosophy, to which I had accorded my confidence, had failed to show me the greatness of the Eternal, whose wisdom distributes joy and sorrow for the improvement of mankind.
Q. When your death had really occurred, did you recover your consciousness immediately?
A. I had recovered my consciousness during the transition undergone by my soul in order to visit the ethereal regions; but, after my real death, it was several days before I awakened to consciousness.
God had granted me a favor; I will tell you why.
My former incredulity no longer existed; I had begun to believe, before my death; for, after having scientifically fathomed the dangerous malady which was killing me, I could assign no other reason for it than the decree of a power superior to nature; this conviction had inspired and consoled me, and had given me a courage that was stronger than my suffering. I blessed what I had formerly cursed; the end, which was approaching, appeared to me as a deliverance. The thought of God is as vast as the universe! Ah! What admirable consolation do we find in the ineffable influences of prayer! The instinct of prayer is the surest element of our immaterial nature. Through prayer I had comprehended; I had arrived at a firm, unwavering conviction; and it was for this reason that God, weighing my actions, granted me this reward before the end of my incarnation.
Q. Would it be correct to say that, during your absence from your body, you were already dead?
A. Yes, and no; the spirit having left the body, the life of the flesh was necessarily becoming extinguished; but, when I again took possession of my terrestrial dwelling, life came back to the body, which had undergone a transition, a sleep.
Q. Did you, at that moment, feel the links that connected you with your body?
A. Undoubtedly; those links are hard to break; the spirit has to wait for the last shudder of the flesh, before he can return to his normal life.
Q. How was it that, at the time of your apparent death and for some minutes afterwards, your spirit was able to disengage itself instantaneously and without confusion, while your real death was followed by a period of confusion extending over several days? It would have seemed that, in the former case, as the links between the soul and the body were stronger than in the latter, your disengagement ought to have been slower; yet it is the contrary that occurred.
A. You have often evoked incarnated spirits, and you have received replies that were really made by them. * I was in the position of those spirits. God called me; His servants said, "Come!" I obeyed the call; and I thank God for the special favor accorded to me, and which enabled me to give my last counsels to my children, and to urge them to goodness and rectitude during their present incarnation.
Q. What prompted those good and beautiful counsels that, on returning to the earthly life, you addressed to your family>
A. They were the reflex of what I had seen and heard during my absence from the body. My spirit-friends inspired my voice and influenced my countenance.
Q. What impression, think you, was made on your family and the other persons present, by your statements?
A. They were all profoundly affected by them. The assertions of a dying man cannot be suspected of deceit; and his children, even the most ungrateful, respect the voice of the parent who is passing away. If you could scrutinize the hearts of children, beside the open grave of a parent, you would see that they are only moved, at such a moment, by true and worthy feelings, excited in their minds by the occult action of the good spirits about them, who say, in whispers addressed to their thought: - "Tremble, if you have not a clear conscience. Death is either a reward, or a punishment; for God is just!" I can assure you that, notwithstanding the incredulity too general in the world, my family and my friends will retain their belief in the statements I made to them before I died. I was the mouth-piece of the other world.
Q. You say that you are not yet in the enjoyment of all the happiness of which you had a fore-glimpse; do you mean to say that you are unhappy?
A. No; for I believed before dying, sincerely and deeply. Pain, so hard to bear, in the earthly life, adds to our advancement in the spirit-world. The Divine Judge has taken account of my prayers and my entire confidence in His goodness; I am on the road to perfection, and I shall reach, in time, the goal of which I was permitted to obtain a fore-glimpse. Pray, my Friends; for you thus render more operative your union with the beings of this other world who preside over the destinies of the earth. Prayer is a force that brings the spirits of all worlds into communion with one another.
Q. Would you like to send a few words to your wife and children?
A. I beseech all those who love me to believe in God, the all-powerful, just, unchangeable; in prayer, which consoles and relieves; in charity, which is the holiest product of human incarnation. Let them remember that even the poorest can find something to give, and that the mite of the poor is the most noble of all gifts in the sight of God, who knows that the poor man gives much in giving little, and that the rich man can only equal the charitableness of the poor man by giving very largely, and very often.
The happiness of the future is contained in charity, in universal benevolence; in the conviction that all men are brothers; in the absence of all selfishness and childish vanity.
My beloved Family! You will have to undergo heavy trials; but draw courage, for bearing them, from the thought that God takes note of your resignation.
Repeat, often, this prayer: - God of love and of goodness, Eternal Giver! Give us the firmness that shrinks from no suffering, render us kind, gentle, charitable; if we are but little, in point of fortune, make us great in the qualities of our hearts. May we be thoroughly pervaded by the truths of spiritism during our earthly life, that so we may be the better able to understand and to love Thee in the spirit-world. May Thy name, O God! Emblem of freedom, be the consoling aim of all those who feel the need of loving, forgiving, and believing!
* Vide The Medium's Book, Part Second, chap. XXV., Evocation of Living Persons.
Dr. Cardon had passed a good many
years on board a whaling-vessel, to which he was attached in his
medical capacity; and he had acquired in that rough and adventurous
existence, ideas and habits savoring strongly of terrestrially. Having
retired from the seafaring life, he settled in the village of J...,
where he exercised the modest profession of a country-doctor. In course
of time, he became aware that he was attacked with hypertrophy of the
heart; knowing this disease to be incurable, the idea of death preyed
upon his mind and plunged him into a state of gloomy depression from
which nothing could rouse him. Two months before he died, he
predicted the day of his decease; and, when that day arrived, he called
all his family around him to bid him farewell. His wife, his mother,
his three children, and a few other relatives, were all assembled at
his bedside. At the moment when his wife attempted to raise him upon
his pillow, he sank on one side, his face became blue and livid, his
eyes closed, and he appeared to be dead; his wife placed herself before
him, to hide the painful spectacle from their children. But, in the
course of a few minutes, he opened his eyes; his face became
illuminated, so to say, with an expression of radiant beatitude, and he
exclaimed: "Oh, my Children, how beautiful it is! How sublime! Oh,
death! What a blessing! What a delight! I was dead; and I felt my soul
rising up very high; but I am permitted to come back to say to you, "Have no fear of death; death is
deliverance." Would that I could depict for you the
magnificence that I have seen and the impressions with which I was
pervaded! But you could not understand them.
... Oh, my Children! Conduct yourselves always in such a way as to deserve this ineffable felicity, reserved for those who have become good; conform your lives to the dictates of charity; of whatever you possess, give a part to those who are in want. ... My dear wife! I leave you in a position which is far from what I could have wished. A good deal of money is owing to us; but, I entreat of you, do not worry those who owe it. Many of them are strained, themselves; wait until they are able to pay, and, in the case of those who cannot do so, make the sacrifice of the claim; God will reward you! You, my Son! Must work hard to support your mother; be always honest and upright! And take care to do nothing that could dishonor our family. Take this cross, which was my mother's; never lay it aside; and may it always remind you of my last words to you. ... My Children! Aid and sustain one another. Let there be always harmony between you. Be neither vain, nor proud. Forgive your enemies, if you would obtain forgiveness of God." Then, having signed to his children to come closer to him, he extended his hands towards them, saying: "My Children! I give you my blessing!" As he uttered these words, his eyes closed again; and, this time, it was for ever. But his face preserved an expression so imposingly beautiful that, up to the moment of his funeral, crowds of people came to see the corpse, contemplating it with admiration.
These interesting details having been communicated to us by a friend of the family, we thought that an evocation of the deceased might be instructive for us, as well as useful to the spirit himself.
... Oh, my Children! Conduct yourselves always in such a way as to deserve this ineffable felicity, reserved for those who have become good; conform your lives to the dictates of charity; of whatever you possess, give a part to those who are in want. ... My dear wife! I leave you in a position which is far from what I could have wished. A good deal of money is owing to us; but, I entreat of you, do not worry those who owe it. Many of them are strained, themselves; wait until they are able to pay, and, in the case of those who cannot do so, make the sacrifice of the claim; God will reward you! You, my Son! Must work hard to support your mother; be always honest and upright! And take care to do nothing that could dishonor our family. Take this cross, which was my mother's; never lay it aside; and may it always remind you of my last words to you. ... My Children! Aid and sustain one another. Let there be always harmony between you. Be neither vain, nor proud. Forgive your enemies, if you would obtain forgiveness of God." Then, having signed to his children to come closer to him, he extended his hands towards them, saying: "My Children! I give you my blessing!" As he uttered these words, his eyes closed again; and, this time, it was for ever. But his face preserved an expression so imposingly beautiful that, up to the moment of his funeral, crowds of people came to see the corpse, contemplating it with admiration.
These interesting details having been communicated to us by a friend of the family, we thought that an evocation of the deceased might be instructive for us, as well as useful to the spirit himself.
(Evocation.) - A. I am near you.
Q. - We have been informed of the circumstances attending your death, and we have been greatly interested by those details. Will you have the kindness to describe to us, as fully as may be, what you saw in the interval between what may be called your two deaths?
A. What I saw, could you comprehend? I know not; but I could not find words capable of rendering comprehensible, for you, what I beheld in the few moments during which it was possible for me to quit my mortal envelope.
Q. Can you tell where you went to? Was it far from the earth? Was it in some other planet? Or was it in space?
A. The spirit does not measure distances as you do. Carried away by some wonderful current, I beheld the splendors of a sky such as not the most ecstatic dream could foreshadow. This journey through infinity was accomplished so rapidly that I cannot tell how many moments were thus employed by my spirit.
Q. Are you now in the enjoyment of all the happiness of which you obtained a glimpse?
A. No; I should be rejoiced indeed if such were my present lot; but God could not grant me a reward so far above my deserts. I rebelled too often against the wise suggestions made to my mind, for death seemed to me to be an injustice. A skeptical physician, I had imbibed, from the exercise of the healing art, an aversion for the idea of the second nature which is our intelligent and divinely-given motor; I regarded the immortality of the sou as a fiction fit for minds of little elevation; nevertheless, the prospect of annihilation filled me with horror, for the mysterious agent, that I had so often cursed, continued to knock at the door of my heart. But the vain philosophy, to which I had accorded my confidence, had failed to show me the greatness of the Eternal, whose wisdom distributes joy and sorrow for the improvement of mankind.
Q. When your death had really occurred, did you recover your consciousness immediately?
A. I had recovered my consciousness during the transition undergone by my soul in order to visit the ethereal regions; but, after my real death, it was several days before I awakened to consciousness.
God had granted me a favor; I will tell you why.
My former incredulity no longer existed; I had begun to believe, before my death; for, after having scientifically fathomed the dangerous malady which was killing me, I could assign no other reason for it than the decree of a power superior to nature; this conviction had inspired and consoled me, and had given me a courage that was stronger than my suffering. I blessed what I had formerly cursed; the end, which was approaching, appeared to me as a deliverance. The thought of God is as vast as the universe! Ah! What admirable consolation do we find in the ineffable influences of prayer! The instinct of prayer is the surest element of our immaterial nature. Through prayer I had comprehended; I had arrived at a firm, unwavering conviction; and it was for this reason that God, weighing my actions, granted me this reward before the end of my incarnation.
Q. Would it be correct to say that, during your absence from your body, you were already dead?
A. Yes, and no; the spirit having left the body, the life of the flesh was necessarily becoming extinguished; but, when I again took possession of my terrestrial dwelling, life came back to the body, which had undergone a transition, a sleep.
Q. Did you, at that moment, feel the links that connected you with your body?
A. Undoubtedly; those links are hard to break; the spirit has to wait for the last shudder of the flesh, before he can return to his normal life.
Q. How was it that, at the time of your apparent death and for some minutes afterwards, your spirit was able to disengage itself instantaneously and without confusion, while your real death was followed by a period of confusion extending over several days? It would have seemed that, in the former case, as the links between the soul and the body were stronger than in the latter, your disengagement ought to have been slower; yet it is the contrary that occurred.
A. You have often evoked incarnated spirits, and you have received replies that were really made by them. * I was in the position of those spirits. God called me; His servants said, "Come!" I obeyed the call; and I thank God for the special favor accorded to me, and which enabled me to give my last counsels to my children, and to urge them to goodness and rectitude during their present incarnation.
Q. What prompted those good and beautiful counsels that, on returning to the earthly life, you addressed to your family>
A. They were the reflex of what I had seen and heard during my absence from the body. My spirit-friends inspired my voice and influenced my countenance.
Q. What impression, think you, was made on your family and the other persons present, by your statements?
A. They were all profoundly affected by them. The assertions of a dying man cannot be suspected of deceit; and his children, even the most ungrateful, respect the voice of the parent who is passing away. If you could scrutinize the hearts of children, beside the open grave of a parent, you would see that they are only moved, at such a moment, by true and worthy feelings, excited in their minds by the occult action of the good spirits about them, who say, in whispers addressed to their thought: - "Tremble, if you have not a clear conscience. Death is either a reward, or a punishment; for God is just!" I can assure you that, notwithstanding the incredulity too general in the world, my family and my friends will retain their belief in the statements I made to them before I died. I was the mouth-piece of the other world.
Q. You say that you are not yet in the enjoyment of all the happiness of which you had a fore-glimpse; do you mean to say that you are unhappy?
A. No; for I believed before dying, sincerely and deeply. Pain, so hard to bear, in the earthly life, adds to our advancement in the spirit-world. The Divine Judge has taken account of my prayers and my entire confidence in His goodness; I am on the road to perfection, and I shall reach, in time, the goal of which I was permitted to obtain a fore-glimpse. Pray, my Friends; for you thus render more operative your union with the beings of this other world who preside over the destinies of the earth. Prayer is a force that brings the spirits of all worlds into communion with one another.
Q. Would you like to send a few words to your wife and children?
A. I beseech all those who love me to believe in God, the all-powerful, just, unchangeable; in prayer, which consoles and relieves; in charity, which is the holiest product of human incarnation. Let them remember that even the poorest can find something to give, and that the mite of the poor is the most noble of all gifts in the sight of God, who knows that the poor man gives much in giving little, and that the rich man can only equal the charitableness of the poor man by giving very largely, and very often.
The happiness of the future is contained in charity, in universal benevolence; in the conviction that all men are brothers; in the absence of all selfishness and childish vanity.
My beloved Family! You will have to undergo heavy trials; but draw courage, for bearing them, from the thought that God takes note of your resignation.
Repeat, often, this prayer: - God of love and of goodness, Eternal Giver! Give us the firmness that shrinks from no suffering, render us kind, gentle, charitable; if we are but little, in point of fortune, make us great in the qualities of our hearts. May we be thoroughly pervaded by the truths of spiritism during our earthly life, that so we may be the better able to understand and to love Thee in the spirit-world. May Thy name, O God! Emblem of freedom, be the consoling aim of all those who feel the need of loving, forgiving, and believing!
CARDON
* Vide The Medium's Book, Part Second, chap. XXV., Evocation of Living Persons.
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Although we know in trying to be a good person we should strive to be forgiving regarding the people we encounter, but due to the knowledge we have as Spiritists, there is at least one logical reason why we should forgive – every person is at a different intellectual and moral level.
People are at different stages of development in their cycle of birth and rebirth in their spiritual evolution. Since we know this to be true, we cannot judge another. It would be like being angry at child for doing something they did not know was wrong. Also, people may be intelligent but their sense of moral comprehension may not yet have caught up. These people have no idea why you may be hurt or upset or angry with them.
We, as Spiritists, first should always do good, for goodness sake, and we should always be forgiving; for to not do so would be an imperfection in our own character that we need to change. We should always apologize if we have offended someone as well. Even if we believe we did no wrong and the other person misunderstood us, we can say that it was not our intent to offend.
It might be helpful to remember we believe in reincarnation and that everyone is at different levels. One could think of it as if being in school and you are in the 12th grade. You can’t be angry at a 6th for not knowing what you have already learned and they have not; that would be foolish.
Have patience, be forgiving of others, and even pray for them. At the very least, be indifferent about it. Getting upset or hurt or mad over what people do, whether they know any better or not, puts you to the test to be a better person then them.
Besides, there may be things you say or do that hurts or upsets others that you have no idea about what you are doing.
Don’t forget there are persons out there that can be at much higher levels of intelligence and morality than you!
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ContentInspirationally received
by Y. Limoges
Although we know in trying to be a good person we should strive to be forgiving regarding the people we encounter, but due to the knowledge we have as Spiritists, there is at least one logical reason why we should forgive – every person is at a different intellectual and moral level.
People are at different stages of development in their cycle of birth and rebirth in their spiritual evolution. Since we know this to be true, we cannot judge another. It would be like being angry at child for doing something they did not know was wrong. Also, people may be intelligent but their sense of moral comprehension may not yet have caught up. These people have no idea why you may be hurt or upset or angry with them.
We, as Spiritists, first should always do good, for goodness sake, and we should always be forgiving; for to not do so would be an imperfection in our own character that we need to change. We should always apologize if we have offended someone as well. Even if we believe we did no wrong and the other person misunderstood us, we can say that it was not our intent to offend.
It might be helpful to remember we believe in reincarnation and that everyone is at different levels. One could think of it as if being in school and you are in the 12th grade. You can’t be angry at a 6th for not knowing what you have already learned and they have not; that would be foolish.
Have patience, be forgiving of others, and even pray for them. At the very least, be indifferent about it. Getting upset or hurt or mad over what people do, whether they know any better or not, puts you to the test to be a better person then them.
Besides, there may be things you say or do that hurts or upsets others that you have no idea about what you are doing.
Don’t forget there are persons out there that can be at much higher levels of intelligence and morality than you!
There is no one who
is perfect on this earth.
| ° ARTICLES |
BY Alexander Moreira-Almeida¹
¹Federal
University of Juiz de Fora School of Medicine
Juiz de Fora, MG, Brazil
alex.ma@ufjf.edu.br
Allan Kardec was one of the first scholars to propose a scientific investigation of psychic phenomena but details of his life and his research work are not well known and have been misrepresented. This paper is a descriptive essay briefly presenting Kardec's biography, the first steps in his seminal research, and several epistemological/methodological guidelines he proposed to develop a comprehensive scientific research program to deal with psychic phenomena. Kardec raised and tested several hypotheses to explain mediumistic phenomena: fraud, hallucination, a new physical force, somnambulism (including unconscious cerebration and clairvoyance), thought reflection (including telepathy and super-psi), discarnate spirits and several other theories. He accepted that fraud, hallucination, unconscious cerebration and thought reflection could explain many phenomena regarded as mediumistic. However, when mediumistic phenomena were studied as a whole, the best explanation would be the spiritist hypothesis, a spiritual origin for the phenomena. He named this hypothesis “Spiritism”. Some guidelines he proposed to advance scientific research in psychical phenomena were: to use methods appropriate to the subject of investigation, to avoid both sterile skepticism and credulity, to be open to the novel, and to heed the need for a comprehensive and diversified empirical basis. He stressed the importance of theory for a scientific research program, and that facts are not enough to create certainty. Parapsychology/psychical research has much to gain in better knowing Kardec's and other pioneer's works, not just for a better understanding of the field's history, but also for potential scientific/philosophical tools that may be useful to move the field forward. Deeper studies on aspects of Kardec's work and life are warranted.
INTRODUCTION
Allan Kardec was a pioneer in proposing scientific investigation of
psychical phenomena¹ in
the middle of the XIX century. To pursue that investigation he
developed a research program, including a comprehensive theory he
called “Spiritism”. Currently, the principle
ideas of Spiritism have become a social movement spawning healing
centers, charity institutions and hospitals
involving millions of people in dozens of countries, most of them in
Brazil (Aubrée &
Laplantine, 1990; CEI, 2008; Moreira-Almeida & Lotufo Neto, 2005).
Despite the fact that Kardec’s books continue to be
very popular, selling millions of copies, his research work and methods
are still poorly known by both
spiritists and parapsychologists. In both fields there is imprecise
information and misunderstandings
concerning his work with psychic experiences (Fodor, 1966; Melton,
1966). One probable major source for
such misapprehension is a paper published by Alexander Aksakof (1875)
when the first English
translation of “The Spirit’s Book” (“Le Livre des Esprits” the first
Kardec’s book on Spiritism) was published.
Aksakof’s paper was entirely based on an interview with the medium
Celina Japhet in 1873. This medium had
worked with Kardec but later had severe conflicts with him. Alvarado
has previously called attention to the fact that parapsychologists
throughout the 20th century have held imprecise and dismissive views of
spiritualists and spiritists. Often they report that spiritists “had
simplistic, unitary views about the
nature of psychic phenomena” (Alvarado, 2003:76-7). However, as this
paper will show, a more in depth analysis
of Kardec’s works reveals that this was not the case with him.
The purpose of the current paper is to present a
brief description of
Kardec’s life and his first steps in the
development of the research program he called Spiritism. I will also
present some methodological/epistemological guidelines that Kardec
proposed for a
fruitful investigation of psychical phenomena. Intending to grasp more
directly Kardec’s ideas and methods,
and not what has been written about him, we focused this paper, as much
as possible, on primary
sources, that is, Kardec’s writings: his books and the twelve volumes
of “Revue Spirite”, a monthly
journal he
edited and published from 1858 until his death in 1869.
ALLAN KARDEC – A BRIEF BIOGRAPHY
Allan Kardec is a pseudonym for Hippolyte Léon Denizard Rivail,
a Frenchman who was born on October 3rd, 1804 (Martins & Barros,
1999; Wantuil & Thiesen, 1979). From 1815 to 1822, he studied in
Switzerland at the world famous Yverdon Institute, directed by Johann
Heinrich Pestalozzi, the well-known Swiss pedagogue and educational
reformer who proposed the development of a science of education and
emphasized that education should foster the individual's faculties to
think for himself. Rivail, for several decades, was committed in
advancing Pestalozzi’s pedagogy in France (Hess, 1991; Incontri, 1996;
2004; Pestalozzi, 2008; Wantuil & Thiesen, 1979).
From his return to Paris in 1822 until his first
contact with mediumistic phenomena in 1854, Rivail worked mainly as an
educator and writer, who published approximately 21 texts about
education and schoolbooks on topics such as grammar and arithmetic.
Rivail founded schools and worked as both a translator and teacher. He
was a member of several scholarly societies such as the Historic
Institute of Paris
(Institut Historique), Society
of Natural Sciences of France (Société
des Sciences Naturelles de France), Society for the
Encouragement of National Industry (Société
d'Encouragement pour l'Industrie Nationale), and THE Royal
Academy of Arras (Académie
d'Arras, Société Royale des Sciences, des Lettres et des
Arts). The latter awarded to him a prize of honor for an essay
on education (Blackwell, 1996; Hess, 1991; Wantuil & Thiesen, 1979).
Rivail always emphasized freethinking, religious
tolerance, and the need for using reasoning and scientific knowledge.
In a speech in 1834, commenting on the child who receives a good
scientific education:
“(...) Then, the children will no longer believe in
souls from another world, nor in ghosts; they will no longer believe
that ignis fatuus are
spirits; they will no longer believe in fortune tellers; they will no
longer believe in shooting stars as being the sign of the death of a
person, (…) they will laugh at the superstitious credulity of the
ignorant, their spirits will be widened contemplating the immense and
without boundaries space, in which circulates many thousands of worlds
(…)” (Rivail, 1998:83).
By 1854, Rivail had been involved with studies on “animal magnetism”
for more than 30 years (Kardec, 1858; Leymarie, 1875), but there is not
much information regarding this involvement. Anna Blackwell, Kardec’s
contemporary and translator of his spiritist books to English, stated
that he “took an active part in the labours of the Society of
Magnetism, giving much time to the practical investigation of
somnambulism, trance, clairvoyance, and the various other phenomena
connected with the mesmeric action” (Blackwell, 1996:11). In fact, it
was among people involved with magnetism that Rivail had his first
contacts with mediumistic phenomena in 1854. It was a magnetizer, Mr.
Fortier, who first told Rivail, about turning tables. At first, Rivail
was not interested in it because he thought that table’s movement could
be due to some physical cause, some new physical force such as
electricity or magnetism. Some months later, Rivail heard the claiming
that tables could not just move but also answer questions.
Rivail answered:
“I will believe it
when I see it and when it has been proved to me that a table has a
brain to think and nerves to feel and that it can become
somnambulist. Until then, allow me to see nothing in this but a fable told to provoke
sleep” (Kardec, 1890/1927:206).
Figure 1- Allan Kardec’s
portrait by Monvoisin (1790-1870)
In 1855, another Rivail’s friend persuaded him to attend a mediumistic séance where he observed table turning and mediumistic writing using a basket (mediums lightly touched an overturned small basket with a pencil attached to it to write upon a sheet of paper placed beneath the basket) After this séance, he decided to start an in depth investigation of these phenomena. He attended regularly mediumistic séances with several mediums.
“I understood from
the beginning the gravity of the exploration I was undertaking. (…) the
phenomena
posed a complete revolution in ideas and beliefs. It was necessary
therefore to act not lightly, but, rather, with
circumspection, to be positive rather than idealistic, so as not to be
carried away by illusions.”(Kardec
1890/1927:209).
In 1857, under the pseudonym of Allan Kardec, Rivail published the first report of his studies, “The Spirit’s Book” (“Le Livre des Esprits”). Since then, regarding issues related to Spiritism, Rivail started to be known as Allan Kardec. At the introduction of The Spirit’s Book, Kardec created the word “Spiritism”, that was later defined as:
“Spiritism is a
science that deals with the nature, origin, and destiny of spirits, and
their relation with the corporeal world.”(Kardec,
1859/1999:6).
Figure 1- Fac simile of the first edition
of "Le Livre des Esprits" (1857)
In 1858, Kardec founded the Société parisienne des Etudes spirites, (Spiritist Society of Paris) and the Revue Spirite - Journal d'Études Psychologiques (Spiritist Journal – Journal of Psychological Studies). Kardec directed the society and the journal until his death in 1869. During Kardec’s last 15 years in which he devoted himself full time to the investigation of mediumship, he also published books on several aspects of Spiritism (Kardec, 1868; 1861/1986; 1864/1987; 1859/1999; 1865/2003), traveled to some French and Belgian cities to visit Spiritist groups (Kardec, 1862; 1864; 1864a) and was intensely involved in correspondence with people around the world interested in mediumistic phenomena (Fernandes, 2004).
In the next sections, I will present some of Kardec’s first steps in developing a research program to investigate psychic phenomena. Here, I use “research program” as referred to by the philosopher of science Imre Lakatos (1970), who proposes that a science is characterized by a “scientific research programme” composed of a conceptual framework and guidelines to advance the scientific exploration of the subject investigated. Lakatos’ concept of “scientific research programme” has been one of the most relevant in the contemporary philosophy of science (Chalmers, 1982).
SEARCHING FOR A
CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK TO EXPLAIN MEDIUMISTIC PHENOMENA
Kardec did not accept the existence of the supernatural or miracles. He assumed that every phenomenon that happens in nature must have a natural explanation following some kind of natural law suitable to scientific investigation. Something may be unexplained, having its causes unknown at a certain historical period, but it is not unexplainable (Kardec, 1859/1999; 1868). Kardec stressed several times that we should be very careful in attributing to spirits all sorts of phenomena that are unusual or that we do not understand.
“I cannot stress this
point enough, we need to be aware of the effects of imagination (…).
When an extraordinary phenomenon is produced – we insist – the first
thought should be about a natural cause, because it is the most
frequent and the most probable.” (Kardec, 1860a:77)
When facing table turning and other mediumistic phenomena, Kardec proposed to use a scientific approach to understand them:
“As a means of
elaboration, Spiritism proceeds in exactly the same course as the
positive sciences²; that
is to say, it applies the experimental method. Some facts of a new
order present themselves, which cannot be explained by known laws. It
teaches us to observe, compare (…), deduces the consequences, and seeks
for useful applications; it establishes no preconceived theory. (...)
It is rigorously exact to declare that Spiritism is a science of
observation, and not the product of imagination. Not until its studies
were based on experimental methods did the sciences begin to make
serious progress. Although it was believed that this method could only
be applied to matter, it is just as well applied to metaphysical
things” (Kardec, 1868/2003:18)³.
It is worth noting that Kardec’s books on Spiritism contain basically the theories he developed based on his explorations of mediumistic manifestations, as well as the rational foundations for these theories. His books discuss what he called the “philosophy” that emerged from his investigation. They sometimes contain some brief case reports or empirical evidence to support the theory. He presented case reports and other
empirical evidence in the Revue Spirite. In that journal he described many cases witnessed by him or by one of his many correspondents around the world. These cases were usually not reported in as detailed a manner as was usual later at the Society for Psychical Research. He used to present reports and to discuss possible explanations of all sorts of physical and mental mediumistic manifestations. He regularly presented hypotheses in the Revue to be tested and analyzed by its readers. Kardec considered this journal as a “trialground”. Many texts and theories first published at the Revue were later published in a developed form in one of his books (Kardec, 1858i; 1868).
Below I will present and briefly discuss Kardec’s first approach to mediumistic phenomena and the main hypotheses he explored in searching for an explanation for the whole group of observed psychical phenomena. In opposition to statements from some parapsychologists that spiritists/spiritualists were not able to realize an alternative explanation to mediumistic phenomena beyond survival, Kardec, like several others, considered a diversity of possible hypothesis, including the influence of the minds of both the mediums and sitters (Alvarado, 2003, Ballou, 1853; Barkas, 1876; Harrison, 1873).
Fraud:
Kardec recognized that many alleged mediumistic manifestations were caused by trickery or charlatanism (Kardec, 1861/1986). He stressed that it is necessary to be always aware of the possibility of fraud and one should denounce it without ceremony. “Spiritism has only to gain in exposing impostors” (Kardec, 1959:96). This having been said, Kardec denied that trickery could explain all kinds of observations. Below I list some of the reasons he provided to support this claim:
- Often the accusation of fraud is
raised with no evidence, but just because someone had witnessed an
order of facts that he/she is not able to explain (Kardec,
1859/1999).
- Because many mediumistic manifestations can be imitated, it does not imply that there cannot exist a real manifestation. “Abuses exist everywhere; but the abuse of a thing is no argument against the thing itself” (Kardec, 1861/1986:33). It is hard to think that thousands of people involved with mediumship around the world are involved in the same fraud (Kardec, 1859/1999).
- Fraud is much more probable with mediums that make mediumship a source of pecuniary profit, especially when mediums state that they are able to produce mediumistic manifestations at their will. Kardec was always in strong opposition to paid mediums:
- Because many mediumistic manifestations can be imitated, it does not imply that there cannot exist a real manifestation. “Abuses exist everywhere; but the abuse of a thing is no argument against the thing itself” (Kardec, 1861/1986:33). It is hard to think that thousands of people involved with mediumship around the world are involved in the same fraud (Kardec, 1859/1999).
- Fraud is much more probable with mediums that make mediumship a source of pecuniary profit, especially when mediums state that they are able to produce mediumistic manifestations at their will. Kardec was always in strong opposition to paid mediums:
- “We are well aware that our severity
with regard to mercenary mediumship has gained us the ill-will of those
who are tempted to make of spiritism a source of worldly gain, and of
their friends (...) we do not see how any one can maintain that there
is not a greater risk of fraud and of misuse of the mediumistic
faculty, when the latter is made a matter of speculation, than when it
is exercised with entire disinterestedness and if our writings have
contributed, in France and other countries, to discredit the turning of
mediumship into a trade, we believe it will not be the least of the
services they will have rendered to the cause of Spiritism” (Kardec,
1861/1986:391).
- Physical mediumship is more subject to fraud than intellectual mediumship, because in the latter it is possible to judge the content of the mediumistic communication. It is hard to explain as fraud when mediums show knowledge of facts, even private affairs, and personality traces of late people unknown to them and to anyone at the séance (Kardec, 1861/1986).
- Physical mediumship is more subject to fraud than intellectual mediumship, because in the latter it is possible to judge the content of the mediumistic communication. It is hard to explain as fraud when mediums show knowledge of facts, even private affairs, and personality traces of late people unknown to them and to anyone at the séance (Kardec, 1861/1986).
Hallucination
Kardec accepted that superstitious or credulous persons often accept as psychic experiences what actually are hallucinations due to a physiological cause. But he stressed that hallucination can not explain all kinds of anomalous perceptions. According to Kardec, the best way to exclude hallucination is when the perception has what he called “intelligent signs”, i.e. when it provides evidence of veridical and verifiable
information unknown to the person who has the experience (Kardec, 1860; 1861/1986): “every apparition that does not give any intelligent sign should definitely be listed as an illusion” (Kardec, 1861:196). In addition to these signs, hallucination becomes an unlikely explanation when “several persons are witnesses to the same fact” or when a table is seen to be raised in the air and “is broken in its fall to the floor” (Kardec, 1861/1986:34-5).
Between the middle of the XIX century to the beginning of the XX century, it was common to consider mediums and anyone involved with spiritualism as mentally insane. Kardec wrote several papers refuting this claim using several methodological and epidemiological arguments that are discussed elsewhere (Almeida, 2007; Moreira-Almeida & Lotufo Neto, 2005; Moreira-Almeida et al., 2005).
Physical Cause
As explained in the previous section, physical cause was the first explanation raised by Kardec when he was told about table turning. But the physical manifestations he observed were not merely mechanical; they showed will and intelligence:
“when those movements
and raps gave proof of intelligence, when it was
recognized that they responded to our thoughts with complete freedom,
one was impelled to
draw the conclusion that, if every
effect has a cause, every intelligent effect must have an
intelligent cause. Is it possible to accept that a fluid
produces these phenomena unless one admits that there must
be an intelligent fluid? (Kardec, 1859/1999:26).
After reaching the conclusion that the phenomena observed were real and caused by an intelligent source, investigating the source of this intelligence became Kardec’s main focus. He discussed in more depth three potential sources of mediumistic manifestations: medium’s mind (somnambulism), sitter’s mind (though-reflection), and discarnate spirits (Kardec, 1861/1986). Kardec considered these as high value
hypotheses:
“Two objections (to
the spiritist theory) still remain to be examined,
the only ones really deserving of the name, because they are the only
ones founded on a rational basis.
Both admit the reality of the material and moral phenomena of
Spiritism, but deny the intervention of
spirits in their production” (Kardec, 1860/1996:52-3).
I will now present those Kardec’s comments about the two hypotheses that he regarded as of high value:
Somnambulism and Though-reflection.
Somnambulism (Unconscious activity, including clairvoyance)
According to this theory, while the medium is in an altered state of consciousness (“waking somnambulism”), there is “a momentary superexcitement of his mental faculties, a sort of somnambulic or ecstatic state, which exalts and develops his intelligence” (Kardec, 1861/1986:39). “In this state the intellectual faculties acquire an abnormal development; the circle of our intuitive perceptions is extended
beyond its ordinary limits; the medium finds in himself, and with the aid of his lucidity, all that he says, and all the notions transmitted by him, even in regard to subjects with which he is least familiar in his usual state” (Kardec, 1860/1996:53). Kardec recognizes that this explanation is true for many alleged “spiritual communications” and that in all mediumistic communications there is an influence of THE medium’s mind (Kardec, 1861/1986); however he denies that this hypothesis could explain all kinds of observed mediumistic phenomena, among them:
- “the way in which the basket moves
under the influence of the medium,
through the mere laying of his fingers on its edges, and in such a
manner that it would be
impossible for him to guide it in any direction whatever. This
impossibility becomes still more evident when
two or three persons place their fingers at the same time on the same
basket, for a truly
phenomenal concordance of movements and of thoughts would be required
between them, in order to produce, on
the part of each, the same reply to the question asked. And this
difficulty is increased by the
fact that the writing often changes completely with each spirit who
communicates, and that, whenever a
given spirit communicates, the same writing re-appears” (Kardec,
1860/1996:30).
- Mediumistic answers to questions posed by sitters. Many times these answers are “notoriously beyond the scope of the knowledge, and even of the intellectual capacity, of the medium, who, moreover, is frequently unaware of what he is made to write, since the reply, like the question asked, may be couched in a language of which he is ignorant, or the question may even be asked mentally” (Kardec, 1860/1996:30).
- “we cannot comprehend how trance should make a man write who does not know how to write, or give communications through the tilting and rapping of tables, or the writing of planchettes and pencils. (…) the proofs of the action of an intelligence independent of the medium are so incontestable that they leave us in no doubt in regard to it. The fault of the majority of theories raised in the early times of spiritism is the drawing of general conclusions from isolated facts” (Kardec, 1861/1986:40).
- Mediumistic answers to questions posed by sitters. Many times these answers are “notoriously beyond the scope of the knowledge, and even of the intellectual capacity, of the medium, who, moreover, is frequently unaware of what he is made to write, since the reply, like the question asked, may be couched in a language of which he is ignorant, or the question may even be asked mentally” (Kardec, 1860/1996:30).
- “we cannot comprehend how trance should make a man write who does not know how to write, or give communications through the tilting and rapping of tables, or the writing of planchettes and pencils. (…) the proofs of the action of an intelligence independent of the medium are so incontestable that they leave us in no doubt in regard to it. The fault of the majority of theories raised in the early times of spiritism is the drawing of general conclusions from isolated facts” (Kardec, 1861/1986:40).
Thought Reflection (Telepathy, Super-Psi)
Kardec called “thought reflection” what Myers would call “telepathy” some decades later (Gauld, 1968). Bellow we have Kardec’s description of this theory:
“The medium is a sort of mirror,
reflecting all the thoughts, ideas,
and knowledge of those about him; from which it follows that he says
nothing which is not known to, at
least, some of them” (Kardec, 1860/1996:54).
This hypothesis was Kardec’s initial supposition for the origin of the intelligent source that produced mediumistic phenomena (Kardec, 1859/1999). Following his investigations, Kardec accepted that this may happen and actually happens (Kardec, 1858d), but it cannot explain the whole body of available empirical evidence:
“proved by the evidence of facts that
the communications of the medium
are often entirely foreign to the thoughts, knowledge, and even the
opinions of those who are
present, and that they are frequently spontaneous, and contradict all
received ideas” (Kardec, 1860/1996:54).
“How, again, can reflection of thought explain the production of writing by persons who do not know how to write? replies of the widest philosophical scope obtained through illiterate persons? answers given to questions propounded mentally, or spoken in a language unknown to the medium? and a thousand other facts, leaving no doubt as to the independence of the intelligence which manifests itself? The theory of reflection can only be held by those whose observation is of superficial and limited character” (Kardec, 1861/1986:38).
“How, again, can reflection of thought explain the production of writing by persons who do not know how to write? replies of the widest philosophical scope obtained through illiterate persons? answers given to questions propounded mentally, or spoken in a language unknown to the medium? and a thousand other facts, leaving no doubt as to the independence of the intelligence which manifests itself? The theory of reflection can only be held by those whose observation is of superficial and limited character” (Kardec, 1861/1986:38).
As the source of the communication was not found to be among the sitters, Kardec finally discussed a last hypothesis, one that would currently be called “super-psi” or “super-ESP” (Braude, 1992; Gauld, 1961;1982):
“The radiation of thought, they say,
extends far beyond the circle
immediately around us; the medium is the reflection of the human race
in general; so that, if he does not
derive his inspirations from those about him, he derives them from
those who are further off, in the town
or country he inhabits, from the people of the rest of the globe, and
even from those of other
spheres” (Kardec, 1860/1996:54).
In answering to this hypothesis, Kardec uses an epistemological reason, that, when, for a given domain of facts, there are two rival theories with similar explanatory power and other heuristic properties, one usually should choose the simpler of them (Hempel, 1966; Chibeni & Moreira-Almeida, 2007):
“We do not think that this theory
furnishes a more simple and probable
explanation than that given by Spiritism; for it assumes the action of
a cause very much more
marvelous. The idea that universal space is peopled by beings who are
in perpetual contact with us, and
who communicate to us their ideas, is certainly not more repugnant to
reason than the hypothesis of
a universal radiation, coming from every point of the universe, and
converging in the brain of a
single individual, to the exclusion of all the others” (Kardec,
1860/1996:54-5).
Regarding theories of reflection and somnambulism, Kardec presented one final aspect against them:
“We repeat (and this is a point of such
importance that we cannot
insist too strongly upon it), that the somnambulistic theory, and that
which may be called the theory of
reflection, have been devised by the imagination of men; while, on the
contrary, the theory of
spirit-agency is not a conception of the human mind, for it was
dictated by the manifesting intelligences
themselves, at a time when no one thought of spirits, and when the
opinion of the generality of men was
opposed to such a supposition. We have therefore to inquire, first,
from what quarter the mediums can
have derived a hypothesis which had no existence in the thought of any
one on earth? And,
secondly, by what strange coincidence can it have happened that
thousands of mediums, scattered
over the entire globe, and utterly unknown to one another, all agree in
asserting the same thing?”
(Kardec, 1860/1996:55).
Miscellaneous Theories
Kardec also discussed a number of other theories developed to explain mediumistic manifestations: cracking-muscle, collective soul (a kind of collective unconsciousness), pessimist theory (only the devil could communicate), optimist theory (only good spirits), and the unispiritist or monospiritist theory (only the Holy Spirit). We will not discuss them HERE because of space constraints. It is possible to read Kardec’s writings on these topics in some of his books (Kardec, 1861/1986; 1860/1996; 1859/1999).
Spiritist Theory
Kardec accepted that fraud, hallucination, physical causes, unconscious cerebration and ESP were the best explanations for many experiences regarded as mediumistic, however, he argued, they were not able to explain the whole body of observed phenomena. As transcribed above, Kardec describes that the mediumistic manifestations themselves proposed the theory that the source of those phenomena were extracorporeal
intelligences, i.e. spirits. However, since the beginning of his investigations, Kardec recognized that one should not accept blindly what is said in mediumistic communications (Kardec, 1860b; 1890/1927). We should always use reason and empirical evidence to judge any theory, proposed by mediums in trance or those in more normal states of consciousness. Following are some phenomena that occurred that encouraged Kardec to accept the survival hypothesis as the best explanation. This list encompasses some important mediumistic experiences not properly explained by other hypotheses:
- Mediums producing accurate information
previously unknown or in
opposition to their previous opinion and that of any sitter (Kardec,
1858c,d,f; 1859a,b)
- Basket writing when several mediums at the same time just barely touched the basket with the tip of their fingers
- Mediums exhibiting previously unlearned skills such as:
- Basket writing when several mediums at the same time just barely touched the basket with the tip of their fingers
- Mediums exhibiting previously unlearned skills such as:
o illiterate mediums writing (Kardec,
1861/1986)
o writing with calligraphy similar to the alleged communicating personality when that person was alive (Kardec, 1858a,b; 1860a; 1861/1986)
o painting, or drawing by mediums who do not have any training or do not show this skill in their regular lives (Kardec, 1858c,g)
o poetry (Kardec, 1859c)
o xenoglossy or xenography (Kardec, 1860/1996; 1861/1986)
o writing with calligraphy similar to the alleged communicating personality when that person was alive (Kardec, 1858a,b; 1860a; 1861/1986)
o painting, or drawing by mediums who do not have any training or do not show this skill in their regular lives (Kardec, 1858c,g)
o poetry (Kardec, 1859c)
o xenoglossy or xenography (Kardec, 1860/1996; 1861/1986)
- Mediumistic communications showing a
wide range of personal
psychological characteristics (such as character, humor, conciseness,
choosing of words, likes, dislikes,
etc) related to the alleged communicating personality (Kardec, 1858e;
1859d,e,g).
KARDEC’S GUIDELINES TO
DEVELOP A RESEARCH PROGRAM IN PSYCHICAL PHENOMENA
Kardec often discussed epistemological and methodological issues relevant to the development of a comprehensive scientific research program to deal with psychical phenomena (Kardec, 1861/1986; 1859/1999; 1868). He proposed several guidelines that may be useful for contemporary researchers. Some examples are:
The use of methods appropriate to the subject of investigation
Kardec believed it is not appropriate to borrow, with no adaptation, research methods from physical sciences (such as physics and chemistry), because the latter deal with inert matter. In the investigation of mediumship we are dealing with an intelligent phenomenon.
“The physical sciences rest upon the
properties of matter, which can be
manipulated at will; their phenomena use material forces for agents.
Spiritist phenomena have, as
agents, intelligent beings who have independence and freewill, who are
not subject to our caprices,
and who, therefore, escape laboratory experimentation and calculations,
remaining outside the
domain of physical sciences. Scientists deceived themselves when they
attempted to experiment with
spirits as they experiment with voltaic batteries. They were
unsuccessful, as they well should,
because they presupposed an analogy that does not hold. Then, without
going any further, they
concluded, by negation, that spirits do not exist.” (Kardec,
1859/1999:22)
The investigation should be strongly based on qualitative studies of spontaneous phenomena:
“They want the
phenomena to happen at their will. One cannot give
orders to spirits; it is necessary to await their will. It is not
sufficient to say “Show me such a fact, and
I will believe.” It is necessary to persevere and allow time for the
phenomena to take place spontaneously.
(...) The sought-after phenomenon will happen when one least expects
it. To the eyes of the
assiduous observer the events will be countless and will corroborate
one another, but he who believes
that touching the crank is sufficient to make the machine go deceives
himself completely.
What does a naturalist do when he wishes to study the habits of an animal? Does he command it to do a certain thing, so as to observe it at his will? No, because he knows well that the animal will not obey him. He observes the spontaneous behavior of the animal and records them when they take place. Simple good sense dictates that one must proceed in the same way with the spirits, particularly since they are intelligent beings with more independence than animals.” (Kardec, 1859/1999:27)
What does a naturalist do when he wishes to study the habits of an animal? Does he command it to do a certain thing, so as to observe it at his will? No, because he knows well that the animal will not obey him. He observes the spontaneous behavior of the animal and records them when they take place. Simple good sense dictates that one must proceed in the same way with the spirits, particularly since they are intelligent beings with more independence than animals.” (Kardec, 1859/1999:27)
The unwarranted and positivistic view that to make authentic science it is necessary to measure and to use a laboratory (Chalmers, 1982) has many times been advocated by scientists in psychical research/parapsychology, since the XIX century to the present time (Moreira-Almeida, 2006; Parot, 1993: Rhine, 1937). It is worthwhile to remember that Darwin’s theory on natural selection, one of the most powerful and most widely accepted scientific paradigms of contemporary science, was developed using qualitative methods (Darwin, 1958; Ghiselin, 1969).
Avoiding sterile skepticism and credulity; openness to the new
Many researchers in psychical research and parapsychology seem to be waiting for “definitive proof”, a kind of perfect evidence that would be convincing to any observer. For instance, J. B. Rhine stated “truth must be established, before we can accept it, upon actual experimentation, critically and deliberately conducted, which yields results that leave only one possible interpretation” (1937:7). This appears to be especially true among skeptics of the paranormal as a whole and in the controversy regarding survival research (Cook, 1986; Ducasse, 1962; Moreira-Almeida, 2006; Richet, 1924; Rhine, 1956). For more than a century, philosophers of science have shown that this goal is unattainable in any scientific enterprise (Chalmers, 1978; Popper, 1963; Kuhn, 1970):
“scientific hypothesis or theories
cannot be conclusively proved by any
set of available data, no matter how accurate and extensive. (…) even
the most careful and
extensive test can neither disprove one of two hypotheses nor prove the
other: thus strictly construed, a
crucial experiment is impossible in science” (Hempel, 1966:27-8).
(…) “a favorable outcome of even very extensive and exacting tests cannot provide conclusive proof for a hypothesis, but only more or less strong evidential support, or confirmation” (…)(Hempel, 1966:33).
(…) “a favorable outcome of even very extensive and exacting tests cannot provide conclusive proof for a hypothesis, but only more or less strong evidential support, or confirmation” (…)(Hempel, 1966:33).
Several times, Kardec recognized that there is no way to provide definitive proof that would be accepted by everyone:
“there are skeptics who deny even the
evidence and to whom no
phenomenon or argument would be convincing enough (…) Many would be
disturbed, if the evidence forced
them to believe, for confessing that they had been in error would wound
their self-pride”
(Kardec, 1859/1999:27).
Kardec asserted that a real scientist should be open to accept well-based hypotheses and evidences even when they are in disaccord with one’s previously held beliefs. He said that this was the case when he accepted the theory of reincarnation (Kardec, 1858h; 1862a). Following is one of his writings on the progressive nature of Spiritism:
“"[Spiritism] is, and must be,
essentially progressive, like all
sciences based upon the observation of facts (…) Therefore, it does not
regard anything as an established
principle unless it has been patently demonstrated, or inferred
logically from observation. (…) [It] will
always assimilate all progressive doctrines, provided they have
attained the condition of practical
truths, and left the domain of utopia (…). Going hand in hand with progress, Spiritism will
never be
superseded, since if new discoveries happen to show that it is in error
on any point, it would modify itself
on that point" (Kardec, 1868:29).
According to Kardec, we should be “on guard against the exaggeration from both credulity and skepticism” (Kardec, 1858i:2). Regarding credulity:
“Exaggeration is always hurtful; in
Spiritism, it engenders a too blind
confidence in everything that proceeds from the invisible world; a
confidence which sometimes becomes
puerile, causing people to accept, too easily, and unreasoningly, what
reflection and examination
would have shown them to be absurd or impossible. Unfortunately,
enthusiasm finds it hard to
reflect, and is apt to get dazed. Such adherents are more hurtful than
useful to the cause of spiritism; they
are unfit to convince, because their judgment is not trustworthy; they
become the easy dupes, either
of spirits who play tricks on them, or of men who take advantage of
their credulity. (…) such persons
unintentionally put arms into the hands of the incredulous” (Kardec,
1861/1986:26).
The need for a comprehensive and diversified empirical basis
Kardec often stated the need for a wide and diversified empirical base. He stressed that a researcher should try to collect all kinds of phenomena that could be related to one’s subject of study (Kardec, 1858i). According to him, many mistakes and unsatisfactory theories were produced because investigators have based their studies and conclusions in a narrow range of observations covering a poor variety of phenomena
(Kardec, 1861/1986). Enlarging the empirical base, making it more comprehensive, was essential to scientific revolutions such AS those produced by Galileo and Darwin (Darwin, 1958; Moreira-Almeida & Koenig, 2008).
Kardec requested that reports of mediumistic manifestations from all over the world be sent to him (Kardec, 1858:i). He reported receiving “communications from almost a thousand serious spiritist centers, scattered over highly diversified areas" (Kardec, 1864/1987:8). Fernandes, (2004), investigating the amplitude of Kardec’s correspondence, surveyed Kardec’s publications on Spiritism and found published references of contacts related to Spiritism from 268 cities in 37 countries (in Africa, Asia, Europe, and from the three Americas).
The importance of a theory to a scientific research program
In contradiction with the positivistic thought of his time, Kardec highlighted that just collecting facts is not enough to make science, that a theory is essential to make the observed facts understandable and to guide future research (Kardec, 1859e,f,h): “Every science should be based on facts, but these, by themselves, do not make a science. Science is built from the coordination and logical deduction of facts; it is the collection of laws that govern the facts” (Kardec, 1958i:3). He describes his role in the development of Spiritism as “that of an attentive observer who studies facts to seek their cause and extract their consequences” (Kardec, 1868:23).
He also called attention to the fact that proposing complex names to certain phenomena is not the same as explaining them (Kardec, 1859/1999). Another important point is that the theory needs to be comprehensive, explaining a large range of related phenomena and not just a few kinds:
“[a physician who had proposed the
theory of cracking muscle] has
proclaimed a verdict without having examined the matter in dispute, and
must be allowed to regret
that scientific men should be in a hurry to give, in regard to what
they do not understand, explanations
disproved by the facts (…) the characteristic of a true theory is its
capability of accounting for
all the facts to which it refers; if contradicted by a single fact, the
theory is seen to be erroneous or
incomplete” (Kardec, 1861/1986:36-7)
Facts are not enough to promote conviction
Also diverging from the positivistic prevailing view, Kardec stated that facts alone many times are not sufficient to persuade even bona fide skeptics. Preconceived objections should be first addressed, after that, one should move gradually from what is well known and accepted to more challenging topics. This strategy was also used some decades later by Frederic Myers (2001; Kelly et al., 2007) to present his studies on
psychical research.
“It is generally supposed that, in order
to convince, it is sufficient
to demonstrate facts. Such would indeed appear to be the most logical
method; nevertheless, experience
shows us that it is not always the best (…) All methodical teaching
should proceed from the known to
the unknown” (Kardec, 1861/1986:20-1)
“It may even be said that, for most of
those who are not previously
prepared by reasoning, physical phenomena have but little weight. The
more extraordinary these
phenomena are, and the more they diverge from ordinary experience, the
more opposition they encounter;
and this, for the very simple reason, that we are naturally prone to
doubt whatever has not a
rational sanction; each man regarding such a matter from his own point
of view, and interpreting it in his
own way. (…) a preliminary explanation has the effect of disarming
prejudice, and of showing, if
not their reality, at least, their possibility. Those, who begin by an
explanation, comprehend before they
have seen. Since one has acquired the certainty that the phenomena are
possible, the conviction
of their reality is easily arrived at.” (Kardec, 1861/1986:26-7)
“When one sees a fact one does not
understand, the more extraordinary
it is the more suspicion it arouses and the more our thought tries to
attribute an ordinary cause
to it. However, if it is understood, it is soon acknowledged as
rational, and its marvelous or
supernatural character just vanishes.” (Kardec, 1859/1999:44).
CONCLUSIONS
Few researchers in parapsychology and psychical research know Allan Kardec and his works on psychical phenomena. In addition to this lack of awareness, there are also several misunderstandings and incorrect facts regarding his life and studies. Referring to a related subject, Alvarado wrote that many “important aspects of our history are sometimes forgotten by modern practitioners”, he emphasized the need to remedy the fact that many “scientifically trained parapsychologists suffer from this lack of historical memory” (Alvarado, 2003:87). We are not aware of any academic study focused on Kardec or his works. There is evidence that Kardec deserves to be remembered as a French intellectual who developed pioneering research on mediumistic and other psychic phenomena. He was one of the first to propose and to pursue a scientific approach to a subject that used to be considered metaphysical or unsuitable for an empirical and rational investigation. He advanced the main theories to explain paranormal experiences that are still debated in parapsychology today. He also produced several very informative discussions on epistemological
and methodological aspects of scientific exploration of psychical phenomena. It would be worthwhile to know his work better, not just for a better comprehension of the history of parapsychology/psychical research, but also for potential scientific/philosophical tools that may be useful to move the field forward. More and deeper studies on aspects of Kardec's work and life are warranted.
Acknowledgments
I would like to thank Joan Koss-Chioino, Sílvio S. Chibeni, Emma Bragdon, and Dora Incontri for their helpful comments on earlier versions of this paper.
¹ Although recognizing the possibility of specificities for each term, in this paper I will use quite liberally and interchangeably the words psychical, parapsychological and mediumistic to refer to the body of phenomena studied by parapsychology, psychical research, and spiritism.
² By “positive science”, Kardec meant empirical sciences (“based on facts”), in opposition to “purely speculative” ones (Kardec, 1864a).
³ Always when available, quotations were extracted from published English versions of Kardec’s works. Otherwise, I translated from French original and Portuguese versions. When necessary to improve fidelity to French originals, I made some changes to passages from published English versions when necessary to improve fidelity to French originals.
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